Toward a Parsimonious Definition of Traditional and Electronic Mass Customization

Abstract

Although mass customization, a term introduced by Davis (1987) to describe the oxymoron of mass producing customized products, has been part of research for more than a decade, literature has not come up with a commonly accepted definition of this term up to now. The present article attempts to close this gap by proposing a definition of traditional and electronic mass customization, which is based on answering three research questions. First, for which kind of customized goods (products versus services) is mass customization applicable at all? Second, at which step of the value creation process must the customer be given the chance to customize his or her good to be able to speak of mass customization? And finally, which prerequisites in terms of production cost and monetary price need to be fulfilled when comparing mass-customized with mass-produced goods? Using an extensive analysis of extant literature in the field, the authors develop two definitions of traditional mass customization, a working and a visionary one, as well as one for electronic mass customization, stating how new opportunities arising from advances in communication and information technology can influence this concept.

Customers’ online shopping preferences in mass customization

“…Despite the willingness of customers to pay significantly more for selfdesigned versus off-the-shelf-products, 31,34,35 various studies determine implicitly the fundamental goal of achieving mass customization products at the same price or a marginal higher price as mass-produced products, 36,9 as well as this study does.…”

“…It is evident that customer preferences should ideally be integrated in the entire design and production process, even though this is rarely the case in practice. 9 Moreover, effective mass customization means that the customer cannot merely personalise the product, but can also gain the advantages of economies of scale where price and delivery times are possibly identical to those of a mass-produced product. [10][11][12][13] This is not only intrinsic to the concept definition, but also a necessary marketing feature because customers are drawn to personalised products by the desire to possess their self-designed object without paying the high price of craft manufacturing.…”

The Co-design Process in Mass Customization of Complete Garment Knitted Fashion Products

“…Customization can be defined as a strategy that creates value by some form of interaction between the company and the client at the manufacturing stage [29]. Lampel and Mintzberg describe this as "tailored customization" [30].…”

Mobilapplikationers potentiale til understøttelse af specialeprocessen

“…Personalisering, der relaterer sig til begreber som customisation (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2006) og narrowcasting (Lukács, 2007), karakteriserer informationsflowet på en raekke af nettets populaere tjenester og ikke mindst i en raekke mobilapps. Af eksempler kan naevnes tjenester hvor brugeren kan traekke indhold i udvalgte kategorier ind i et laeseprogram (Google Laeser), så de gennem RSS-feeds gives en personaliseret strøm af indhold fra de websites der 7 Projektets redaktionsgruppe består af Biblioteksmedarbejdere ved AU Library, Aarhus Universitet, Københavns Universitets Bibliotek-og Informationsservice, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, VIA UC Bibliotekerne samt Det Informationsvidenskabelige Akademi.…”